History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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Third. By a direct appeal to Congress for an appropriation to relieve the destitute ; Fourth. By an appeal to the general public with a true statement of our condition as near as it can be ascertained, a plan which has been so successful in Kansas, Nebraska, and elsewhere, whose citizens have suffered from loss of crops.

] am exceedingly anxious that such of the people of the territory as are destitute, and by no fault of their own, should be speedily relieved, and I am and have been anxious to cooperate with the Legislative Assembly in some feasible plan for that purpose : but assured as I am that nothing can possibly be accomplished by issuance of bonds, as proposed in this bill, I am constrained to withhold from it my signature.

Should the Legislative Assembly adjourn without some definite action whereby relief may be reasonably expected, I shall not hesitate to appeal to the sympathies of a charitable public to prevent starvation on account of the lack of food, and to enable the unfortunate to seed their land the present year.

JOHN L. PENNINGTON, Governor.

The bill was taken up upon its return by the governor to the Legislature, and passed through both houses by a vote of more than two-thirds, the required number, and became a law; but no attempt was made to carry it into effect, because of the limit fixed on the price of the bonds, which was said to be fatal to their negotiation. These were the first bonds authorized by the Legislature of Dakota, and as the territory was rapidly growing and practically out of debt, a market could have been found for them because of the object to which their proceeds would have been devoted. The Legislature adjourned without further action.

After the adjournment of the Legislature the governor became convinced that the situation, among the rural settlers particularly, was one that called for immediate and energetic measures of relief, and the Legislature having neglected to enlarge the powers of the county boards or authorize a direct appropriation from the territorial treasury, he was forced, much against his inclinations, to issue an official appeal to the public. The governor had been among the few that believed the situation was not so serious as represented, and had been accustomed to speak of the reports as founded somewhat on a mistaken apprehension, and that it would be taken care of by the people without advertising the adversity of the people to the outside world and possibly frighten away many who had prepared to remove to the territory. He appeared to realize that he had erred in his estimate of the misfortune, and after the Legislature adjourned issued the follow- ing statement, entitled :

AN APPEAL TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Executive Office, Yankton. D. T., January 22, 1875.

The fact cannot be disguised that there is considerable destitution in various parts of the territory, caused mainly, we have reason to believe, by the destruction of crops by

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

grasshoppers last season. There is destitution reported and we have appeals for aid from Brooklings, Lincoln, Turner, Union, Clay, and Bon Homme counties; and there are, or doubtless will be instances of destitution and suffering in other sections of the territory before the winter is over.

We are assured that there are families in all the above named counties, out on the prairie, that need help in food and clothing immediately, and that there are many who must have help to procure seed gram, or they will not be able to make crops the present per

Most of the people who settle in Dakota are very poor when they arrive, and the los of one crop falls very heavily on them, in many instances rendering it impossible for them to sustain life. The feeling is buoyant and sanguine, however, and there is a universal determination to continue the struggle, and to plant again, with hopes of a better harvest this year, provided aid can be secured to sustain life and procure seed.

Much has already been done by local aid offert, to aid the destitute, and our people de hope to weather the storm and not be compelled to call on the outside world for help. but they find they cannot do it. Not having the benefits of a state organization, butt beng but a dependency of the general government, a newly settled and sparsely populated country, with no great accumulations of wealth, we have not the facilities for helping ourselves that older communities possess. We have no money in the territorial treasury, and no way of raising any for an emergency.

The Legislative Assembly has adjourned without making any provision to aid the destitute, if we except the passage of a bill for the issuing of territorial hands to the amount of $25,000 for that purpose, with a proviso that they should not be sold for less than go cents on the dollar; and intelligent business men being almost unanimous in the opinion that it would be impossible to negotiate them at that price, the commissioners named in the bill have determined not to issue them at all.

Under these circumstances and for these reasons, we earnestly appeal to the sympathies of a charitable publie for aid for such of the settlers of Dakota as are in want. Donations of food and clothing, and of grain for seeding purposes, and of money to purchase such articles, will be acceptable, and will be promptly and faithfully distributed to the destitute and needy.

After consultation with a number of leading citizens from different parts of the terri- tory, the following well known gentlemen have been selected to constitute the Territorial Relief Committee, with headquarters at Yankton, to whom all donations may be sent : Yankton County-Ex-Gov. N. Edmunds, Mai. F. J. Dewitt. Charles Eiseman. Clay County-M. D. Thompson, W. O. Devay. Union County -- Rev. G. W. Freeman. Minnehaha County-F. J. Cross. Lincoln County-G. W. Harlan. Turner County-Rev. J. J. Melntire. Cass County-Alex. Mellench. Bon Homme County E. W. Barber. Burleigh County Hon. E. A. Williams.

JOHN L. PENNINGTON, Governor.

Attest : Geo. 11. Hamond. Secretary.

We. the undersigned, citizens of Dakota Territory, recognizing the necessity for and. cheerfully endorse the above appeal :

J. P. Kidder, Associate Justice; A. 11. Barnes, Associate Justice; Wm. Pound, U. S. Attorney: J. 11. Burdick, U. S. Marshal: J A. Potter, Mayor of Yankton ; M. Høyt, Rector of Christ Church ; L. D. Parmer ; C. E. Sanborn, Cashier First Nationd Bank.

The territorial committee named by the governor received liberal donations and distributed them judiciously and impartially, keeping an itemized record of their receipts and disbursements, which was published after the labors of the committee were concluided.

FORT DODGE RELIEF CONVENTION

In the interest of the farmers of Dakota, lowa. Nebraska and Kansas, who had been deprived of their crops in the season of 1874 and were as a consequence in a destitute and suffering condition, a convention of representatives from this territory and the states pamed. was held at Fort Dodge, lowa, on the 20 day of February, 1875, and calle ! the "Sud Cousen tion." The convention was summoned by the "lowa Executive Relief L'ommitt "." The representatives from Dakota were: Gen. W. 1. Il. Beadle, of Yankton Counts ; M. D Thompson and W. O. Devay. Chiy County : Rev. G. W. Freeman, Union County ; . nl Res J. J. MeIntire. Turner County. Geo. D. Perkins, editor of the Sioux City Journal, w. one of the delegates from Fowa.

General Beadle, speaking for Dakota Territory, told the convention that the pe pl there had at first mistaken their duty as to making an appeal for aid, but now that is no further question as to the necessity for relief and the citizens were fulls awa (tidi responsibility in caring for the poor settlers The sections requiring assistance were very well defined. He first mentioned Bon Homme County ; the north half of Clo (s ) Turner County: the west half of Lincoln County, and the north portion . i The speaker did not name Yankton, Minnehaha and Brookings counties, where i

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

destitution was found to exist later, but which had not been made public at this time. The speaker said that there was a great deal of pressing need already.

Rev. J. J. McIntire, speaking for Turner County, said: "No individual gathered so much as a bushel of potatoes. There was not enough corn gathered in the county to fatten a pig. Oats were cut green, and perhaps five hundred bushels were saved in the county. Of wheat harvested, the average was four bushel to the acre, but they found by taking into account the fields not cut or threshed, the average of the crop sown was reduced to two bushels to the acre."

Committees were appointed to set forth the wants of the various states and Dakota, for seed, as that seemed to be the most pressing need of the farmers, and to supply which the convention was called. The Dakota Committee consisted of the delegates heretofore named from that territory; and later in the session the committee, through Chairman Beadle, reported that from a full, careful and close estimate of the least amounts required to relieve suffering and supply seed to the needy in the territory, they concluded to submit the following recommendations :

"There are 1,500 families who need immediate help of food and clothing, much of it to be continued until late in the spring, and one-half this number will require seed, or the lands must lie idle and further suffering follow. We need 17,000 bushels of seed wheat, 5,000 bushels of oats, 1,000 bushels of seed corn, 500 bushels of beans and 2,000 bushels of barley. And if this is supplied the wheat to be so much reduced. The total cost of this seed will be about twenty thousand dollars." The general added : "Our people are brave and determined, but suffering generally before they ask at all. Our delay was dangerous, and our necessities so pressing that we pray our relief may be swift; and all good people everywhere are asked to remember our cold and hungry who are under a northern sky in a very cold winter, and whose only light of hope is their expectation of this immediate relief help." The committee recommended that Messrs. Beadle, Devay, Freeman, McIntire, Rev. T. H. Judson, of Bon Homme County and Rev. H. D. Brown, be assigned to fields for the solicitation of help, bearing our endorsement, and that their credentials shall show that they act for all Dakota, but that they will forward special donations when requested.

M. D. Thompson, Vermillion, was designated to receive general supplies; and ex-Gov. Newton Edmunds, Yankton, all contributions of money.

The soliciting committee for Dakota was assigned the Territory of Iowa north of the Northwestern Railroad as the field wherein they might work, and Nebraska and Kansas solicitors were given the territory south of that line.

General resolutions were adopted by the convention appealing "to a Christian and pros- perous people to in some measure take the sufferings of the unfortunate home to them- selves, thereby to be stimulated to continue their earnest and praiseworthy efforts in rais- ing supplies of food, clothing and seed for the unfortunate in the broad extent of the country afflicted."

The Government of the United States joined the relief forces during the winter, and Congress appropriated $150,000 to purchase food for the grasshopper sufferers on the frontier, to be disbursed through the war department. The frontier included Nebraska, lowa, Minnesota, Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The appropriation was for food only, and was to be disbursed by the war department.

Gen. Alfred Terry, who was in command of the Dakota Military District, which included Minnesota, had a census taken of the persons needing aid in Minnesota and Dakota, and found 14,319 to whom rations should be issued. The report did not state the number in Dakota separately, but the list of counties receiving aid shows this approximately. The officers who made the enumeration reported, however, that the destitute situation had been greatly exaggerated, that they had rejected a number of applications after investigation. The Government supplies were given only to those who were in actual need at the time, and the amount given to each person was estimated to furnish food for twenty-five days. This distribution was made during March and April, as follows :

Union County received 21,600 pounds of flour, and 10,800 pounds of bacon. There were 226 families consisting of 1, 140 persons enrolled.

Clay County received 17,312 pounds of flour, and 8,656 pounds of bacon, for 173 families of 930 persons.

Yankton County received 11,200 pounds of flour, and 5,600 pounds of bacon for 122 families of 607 persons.

Bon Homme County, 9,037 pounds of flour and 4.518 pounds of bacon, for 94 families of 460 persons.

Turner County, 6,400 pounds of flour and 3,200 pounds of bacon. for 73 families of 331 persons.

Hutchinson County, 387 pounds of flour and 193 pounds of bacon, for 21 persons.

Hason County, 587 pounds of flour and 29312 pounds of bacon, for 29 persons.

Armstrong County, on James River, 275 pounds of flour and 137 pounds of bacon, for

14 persons.

Davison County, 525 pounds of flour and 262 pounds of bacon, for 27 persons.

Dry weather had added to the grasshopper depredations in most sections, and injured the growing vegetation.

Minnehaha County, 1,050 pounds of flour and 524 pounds of bacon, for 54 persons.

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Lincoln County, 1, 100 pounds of flour and 540 pounds of bacon, for bo persons. Brookings County, 1,250 pounds of flour and 540 pounds of bacon, for 70 persons.

Deuel, Richland, Cass, Pembina, Stutsman and Burleigh were counties not reported but were said to have been supplied in measure from the military forts in the vicinity of each of those counties.

The only reference to the northern part of the territory that we find in the proceedings of the territorial relief committee appointed by the governor was a letter from Hon. A. MeHench, of Cass County, to Delegate Kidder, in Congress, as follows :

Fargo, D. T., April 3. 1875.

Ilon. J. P. Kidder : Will you please inform me whether there are any funds appro- priated by Congress for Dakota farmers who lost their crops by grasshoppers. We have a few in this county who are in need of seed, and if they can be supplied it would be a great help to them. If we could get, say, from three hundred to five hundred dollars it would be all I think that would be needed. Yours respectfully,

A. McHENCH.

Delegate Kidder spread the letter before the territorial relief committee, and Mr. McHench was allowed $250 by that body.

The work of relief was attended to by the territorial and county committees with diligence and thoroughness. The cities of Northern Iowa, including Sioux City, organized associations and distributed many carloads of goods through the afflicted sections of Dakota, through the medium of the committees. It was not learned that any fatality resulted from destitution or starvation, the aid reaching the needy in time to succor them. The Federal Government aid was most timely, and taken altogether there was that sincere good samaritan spirit manifested on every hand, that when the time of planting came, the general feeling was one of good cheer and thankfulness that so many of the people of Dakota had been rescued from a perilous situation. And in early spring the Black Hills emigration thronged the river settlements and aided materially by its disbursements in giving a buoyant fone to business. The only exception to this general good feeling was among many of the occupants of the Missouri bottom lands between the James and Big Sioux rivers. The ice in the Missouri broke up about the last of March ; a number of gorges formed, backing the water up stream and overflowing the lowlands. Traffic on the Dakota Southern Railroad was suspended for a fort- night, owing to the insecure condition of the thoroughly saturated roadbed, which in places gave way under the weight of a locomotive. The Big Sioux wagon bridge was carried away by the flood and a portion of the farmers along the 1 ower Sioux, Vermillion and James experienced considerable damage from high water, delaying their farming operations, which added to the prevailing destitution, might have had serious results but for the indomitable fortitude and grit of the people, who refused to become discouraged.

The committee in charge of the territorial relief bureau discharged their duties with serupulous fidelity, and gave out frequent reports of the donations received and how disposed of. Considerable seed grain was procured by this organization to enable the destitute farmers to seed their grain in the spring. Among the principal donors were the Margaretta Relief Society, Cashuta, Urie County, Ohio, which sent $78.05 cash, and Venice in the sumne county, forty-three barrels of seed grain, besides barrels of dried fruit, sacked wheat, beans, etc. The Chicago Board of Trade contributed, cash $1. 170 50. The Detroit Chamber of Commerce. $1.020; and the Detroit Relief Committee, $500. The total cash contributions were $4.321.57 : the total cash disbursements. $1.10220 The committee stated that $4,000 of the cash was due to the efforts of General Ficulle. The general visited Chicago and Detroit and many points cast, delivering addresses, explaining the conditions here.

In certain localities the young grasshoppers, hatched from the egyes that hul been deposited in Dakota soil during the visitation of the year previous, dif Vol. 1-51

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

some damage in the early season of 1875, but when their wings were grown they departed. Inasmuch as the territory had suffered from a previous visitation of this scourge in 1864. and it may occur at some future periol, it is well that Dakotans should obtain whatever information they are offered regarding the insect, though there has been no general depredation from this cause in the territory since 1874.

Doctor Harris, the entomologist, and author of "Insects Injurious to Vegeta- tion," in 1874 gave out a minute and interesting description of the insect, and also something of its history. Professor Harris called the Dakota insect the red legged locust, a more destructive pest than the grasshopper. He says :

The red legged insect was first discovered by DeGeer from specimens sent to him from Pennsylvania, and Doctor Harris claims to have retained the scientific name that DeGeer gave to it. It is the Gryllus (locusts) erythrossus of Gruelin, and the Arcrydium fermur-rubrum of Oliver. It appears to be very generally diffused throughout the United States.

The following description was taken down in the prairies west of the Souris, in North- ern Dakota, "where the insect surrounded uis in countless millions, and the air from 9 o'clock until 4 o'clock was filled as with flakes of snow:" Dimensions of the male insect,-length of body, I inch; with wings closed, 11/2 inches; length of wing cases, 13 lines, of wings 1212 lines. Color of head, bluish green; of thoras, bluish green, with two lateral black lines parallel to the sides of the thorax and a half line apart. These marks on the female are distinct. Abdomen-Color of segments, pale bluish green with whitish blue margin ; upper portion of end of segment, dark brown; especially the superior segment ; wing cases, ash-colored, with brown spots. Legs-Upper section of posterior legs, brownish white, with two dark brown spots; outside of the leg, red; inside tebia, rose colored, and fringed with two rows of spines. Forelegs, yellowish brown.

The female differs from the male in the color of the cheeks, thorax, and upper portion of the abdomen, these parts being of a brighter green. Legs deeper rose-color; underside of abdomen, yellowish white. Length of the insect, thirteen lines.

The first authentic account of the appearance of extraordinary swarms of locusts in Rupert's Land, according to Professor Harris, assigns the last week of July, 1815, to this event. Every green herb in the settlements of the Red River of the North was stated to have been destroyed by these destructive insects. In 1819 the young brood hatched from the eggs deposited the preceding year appeared in the spring and consumed the growing wheat crops. Early in 1819 the pestilence disappeared, but in what manner is not stated, but it is probable that as soon as their wings were grown they migrated East.

In 1857 the locusts appeared in myriads over a large part of North America. They destroyed nearly all the vegetables cultivated at Fort Randall, the new military post then recently built on the upper Missouri in longitude 98" 29', latitude 43" 4', and extended their ravages well into the State of Iowa. During the same year they devoured the crops in parts of Minnesota, and advanced so far to the northeast as the Lake of the Woods, where they were seen on Gaden Island in August. During the autumn of the same year they appeared on the White Horse Plains, north of the Assinaboine, where they deposited their eggs. The swarms of this insect must have extended as far west as the south branch of the Saskatchewan, and covered the country in a greater or less degree between the Lake of the Woods and the south branch above mentioned, a distance in an air line of 560 miles; the perfect insect of 1857, or the young brood in 1858, having been observed nearly con- tinuously over that wide extent of country. The ascertained limits of this mighty army of insects in 1857 extended from the 24th to the 112th meridian, and from the 4Ist to 53d parallel of latitude, from the settlements in Utah Territory to near the Valley of the North Saskatchewan, and from the Lake of the Woods to the foot of the Rocky Mountains.

During the month of September, 1857. I saw the female engaged in laying her eggs. They did not limit themselves to the prairie soil in forming a nest, but riddled the decayed trunks of trees, the thatch of houses and barns, the wood of which they were built : every- thing, indeed, which they could penetrate with the little blades provided for that purpose. The appearance presented by bare patches of soil, such as the road near the settlements, suggested the idea that a vast number of worms had risen to the surface and then retired again after loosely closing the aperture they had made. When in the act of preparing a nest for her eggs, the female was observed to introduce her abdomen into the soil by repeated thrusts to its full length, and then slowly withdrawing it, eject her eggs, to the number of ten or twelve. in the form of a half cylinder, loosely covering the orifice after the operation was completed.

In the spring of 1858 the young brood were seen at Prairie Portage, hopping over the newly fallen snow. at the latter end of April. It was thought by the settlers that the cold weather, which followed the warm days in the early part of the month when the eggs hatched would have destroyed the young brood, but it did not appear to have created any sensible diminution in their numbers. The extraordinary vitality of the eggs of insects is well known, but when we reflect that the eggs of the red legged locusts are exposed in

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IHISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

Rupert's Land to a temperature lower than that at which mercury freezes, or more than 40° below zero, as well as constant alteration of temperatures from the freezing point to below zero in the early spring months, their capacity to resist these influences cannot fail to be regarded as one of the most wonderful features in the hfe of this insect.

The females have not a long projecting pioneer, like the crickets and grasshoppers, but the extremity of the body is provided with four short wedge-like pieces, placed in pairs. above and below, and opening and shutting opposite each other, thus forming an instrument like a pair of nippers, only with four short blades instead of two.

When one of these insects is about to lay her eggs, she drives these little wedges into the earth; these being opened and withdrawn, enlarge the orifice, upon which the msect again drives them down deeper than before, and repeats the operation until she has formed a perforation large and deep enough to admit nearly the whole of her abdomen.

IN AID OF IMMIGRATION

Dakotans, beginning with the earliest white settlers, were wide-awake to the importance of immigration, and duly impressed with the necessity of laboring discreetly to secure it. The early pioneers of the Territory of Dakota found themselves surrounded on all sides save the west, by communities clamorous for immigration, and with more or less effective organizations for securing it. Millions of acres of public and vacant lands invited immigrants to Minnesota. lowa, and Nebraska ; and even the British provinces on the north soon joined in an earnest and intelligent crusade for a greater population ; so that whatever immigration reached Dakota was compelled to resist the attractions of other fertile sections nearer the markets of the world, and doubtless as valuable for cultivation as those Dakota had to offer. The growth of the territory in early days was, therefore, less than moderate. There were years, particularly during the Indian wars and grasshopper scourges, when it was estimated that the territory lost, instead of gaining, population, and during these years the people were so handicapped by poverty, that they could afford to give no aid to immigra- tion work. The feeble efforts made were as a rule backed financially by a few fortunate ones among the federal officials or business men who had business

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198